More happenings
The Summary Care Records Service (SCRS) trial gets more attention both in the BBC & in the Guardian with a repeat of the talking points as framed by CfH. What I will be interested in is the detail of the patient education & the ease of the process for opting out as applied in practical terms. Also interesting will be access controls on the data, the detail of which I am sure will be keenly awaited.
Given that Dr Hannan’s previous attempt at patient education took 2 hour sessions I am not too impressed by the proposal for just a glossy leaflet & a canned video. Will the risks be adequately stated or will the usual tactics of obfuscation be used? Let us see.
Dr Crippen has his own take on the situation.
A press release from the Local Government Association also covered by the BBC emphasises that social care for vulnerable people is being squeezed as a result of NHS deficits.
A survey of 60 council social services departments found that:
• 40% said that the financial situation was worse than last year and 51% believe that the financial situation will stay the same or get worse in the next financial year.
• More than two in three responding had found that the financial deficit in their local NHS had an adverse effect on their council services.
• Half had seen bed closures in the NHS and more than one in five had seen a reduction in district nursing capacity.
Something that a lot of people have been pointing out.
Another 14% said there were increased waiting times for NHS services, such as admission to hospital while 13% said community hospitals had been closed.
In addition, more than a third of the councils in the LGA survey say they are having to take responsibility for more cases normally dealt with by the NHS.
Everyone knows that this is an unsustainable cut in services brought on by political imperatives. Which is why announcements like the one whose treatment David Brindle bemoans here are not received with reverence.
The continuing care of elderly patients is the main area where responsibilities overlap.
Almost a quarter (24%) say the local NHS is failing to fund agreed or joint services.
This might involve cuts to nursing services, meaning home helps have to take on tasks such as changing wound dressings or checking insulin levels.
However the NHS Confederation said there were two sides to the story, and some local authorities have being pushing costs the other way by tightening their criteria for looking after people.
David Stout from the confederation’s primary care network said: “Pressures include increased admissions into residential care and increased workload for community based staff as well as increased pressure on out-of-hours services.”
And finally the letters page of the Guardian is rich in NHS material today with an illustration of the cuts in services at PCT level as well as a letter from a number of senior medics (professors actually) calling the review & its aftermath a “charade”.
We are alarmed by the new process for selecting young doctors for specialist training, called Medical Training Application Service (MTAS). This introduced an untested online system which abandoned long-recognised measures of the clinical skills required by successful doctors, and forbade use of CVs at short-listing or interview. The resulting lottery, compounded by overwhelming numbers of applicants from the new EU, has resulted in gross injustices. Thousands of our brightest trainees have no hopes of progression in their area of greatest aptitude (medicine, surgery, general practice etc), while thousands more have been discarded altogether.
While we initially welcomed the reported climbdown (Climbdown over NHS job rules for doctors, March 10), this appears a charade as thousands have been forbidden permission to re-apply. Almost 1,500 doctors, senior and junior, have answered our online questionnaire since the weekend, of whom 90% have called for the process to be stopped altogether and 95% wish its architects to resign.
MTAS is part of a wider overhaul of medical training known as Modernising Medical Careers, introduced like MTAS by government diktat without involvement by those experienced in medical education and training. The threat to the NHS and people with medical problems in future decades is very real. We support the need to modernise medical training, as successfully undertaken in other countries. The chaos of MMC/MTAS has delayed progress and those responsible should depart.
Morris Brown, consultant physician and professor of clinical pharmacology, University of Cambridge
Hugh Barr, consultant surgeon and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Bioscience, Cranfield Postgraduate Medical School
Nick Brooks, consultant physician and president, British Cardiovascular Society
Edwina Brown, consultant physician and professor of renal medicine, Imperial College, London
John Camm, consultant physician and professor of clinical cardiology, St. George’s hospital medical school
Mark Caulfield, consultant physician, professor of clinical pharmacology, Queen Mary, University of London
Shern Chew, consultant physician and professor of endocrine metabolism, Queen Mary, University of London
Edwin Chilvers, consultant physician and professor of respiratory medicine, University of Cambridge
Paul Corris, consultant physician and professor of thoracic medicine, University of Newcastle
Paul Durrington, consultant physician and professor of medicine, University of Manchester
Paul Emery, consultant physician and professor of rheumatology, University of Leeds
John Gibson, consultant physician and professor of respiratory medicine,University of Newcastle
Ashley Grossman, consultant physician and professor of endocrinology, Queen Mary, University of London
Alistair Hall, consultant physician and professor of clinical cardiology, University of Leeds
George Hart, consultant physician and professor of medicine, University of Liverpool
Tony Heagerty, consultant physician and professor of medicine, University of Manchester
Humphrey Hodgson, consultant physician and vice-dean, professor of medicine, Royal Free & University College School of Medicine
Philip Home, consultant physician and professor of diabetic endocrinology, University of Newcastle
Richard Hughes, consultant physician and professor of neurology, Kings College London
Kay-Tee Khaw, consultant physician and professor of clinical gerontology, University of Cambridge
John Lazarus, consultant physician and professor of clinical endocrinology, University of Cardiff
David Leaper, emeritus professor of surgery, University of Newcastle
Peter McCollum, consultant surgeon and professor of vascular surgery, University of Hull
John Monson, consultant surgeon and professor of surgery, University of Hull
Professor Philip Poole-Wilson, consultant physician and professor of cardiology, Imperial College, London
Stephen O’Rahilly, FRS, consultant physician and professor of clinical biochemistry, University of Cambridge
James Ritter, consultant physician and professor of clinical pharmacology, Kings College, London
Brian Rowlands, consultant surgeon and professor of surgery, University of Nottingham
Wendy Savage, former consultant obstetrician and professor of obstetrics & gynaecology
Julian Scott, consultant surgeon and professor of vascular surgery, University of Leeds
Alan Silman, consultant physician and professor of rheumatic disease epidemiology, University of Manchester
Robert Sutton, consultant surgeon and professor of surgery, University of Liverpool
Deborah Symons, consultant physician and professor of rheumatology, University of Manchester
Roy Taylor, consultant physician and professor of medicine & metabolism, University of Newcastle
Doug Turnbull, consultant physician and professor of neurology, University of Newcastle
Hugh Watkins, consultant physician and professor of cardiology, University of Oxford
Robert Wilcox, consultant physician and professor of cardiovascular medicine, University of Nottingham
Nick Wright, warden, Queen Mary College, London
Glad to see that not too many have been taken in by the spin. Who exactly are these people being asked to go? Is it just the MMC teams & the various Deaneries or do the Royal Colleges share some of the responsibility?
March 16th, 2007 at 8:47 am
[...] relates to the letter published in the Guardian yesterday & which I quoted here. Professor John Bell, the president of the Academy of Medical Sciences and Professor Sir John [...]